<p>I don’t really like live albums, I find the audience distracting. But I do like videos of live concerts. I think I only have two live albums that I bought (dh has lots more) - a Jimmy Buffet one and Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. We recently were watching youtube videos and came across The Who playing “My Generation” (and smashing guitars) on the Smothers Brothers. My 14 yo was impressed. :)</p>
<p>“Stop Making Sense” !!!</p>
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<p>Yes. But, only Disc 1, the acoustic set. IMHO, that is the definitive recording of solo Dylan, much better than the studio versions. Despite its historical significance, the electric set is pretty much unlistenable. Robbie Robertson has described that they really didn’t figure out how to play the electric stuff until Dylan quit touring after '66 and they spent several years in Woodstock jamming in the Band’s basement. The other Dylan live CD I listen to a lot is a mid-90s MTV Unplugged set.</p>
<p>Agree with Audiophile’s list, although the recording quality of Live at Leeds is pretty tough to take. I love “Waiting for Columbus”. It sounds as fresh today as it did when it was released. I prefer “Hendrix in the West” to “Band of Gypsies”, mostly for the extended Red House.</p>
<p>As for old live rock albums, I would also have to nominate Edgar Winter’s Roadwork, featuring Rick Derringer and Johnny Winter.</p>
<p>For newer stuff, I would nominate Dwight Yoakam’s “Dwight Live” as right up there with the best live albums ever recorded. Pete Anderson on guitar just rips it up.</p>
<p>I have a large collection of live concert Dolby Digital 5.1 DVDs. Better than hassling with tickets and bad arena sound in most cases. The technology has finally delivered sufficient dynamic range to capture live concert sound. Too many good ones to list, but in keeping with the theme of live rock, the 2005 Cream reunion concert from Royal Albert Hall is beyond amazing. Santa brought a new live Bonnie Raitt concert and Phil Lesh & Friends Live at the Warfield.</p>
<p>Great stuff everybody. My pick? <a href=“http://bobdylan.com/linernotes/30th.html[/url]”>http://bobdylan.com/linernotes/30th.html</a> The Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration. There are some truly wonderfully obsure renditions of Dylan tunes at this concert. Check out Neil Young on All Along the WatchTower, and Ron Wood’s Seven Days. But the absolute throwdown winner of the night was a kickin’ Lou Reed version of Foot of Pride. Mindblowing.</p>
<p>Cur,</p>
<p>You surprised me. I totally had you picked for “Lynyrd Skynyrd: One More From the Road” ;)</p>
<p>I was a grad student at ASU when The Who were doing a farewell tour. The tickets were $15 and I didn’t go because I thought I couldn’t afford it. I could hear it from where I lived (sort of) and I realized I could have found the money somehow. Life is too short for self-deprivation.</p>
<p>Here’s one I forgot</p>
<p>Johnny Winter And Live</p>
<p>There’s also and old out-of-print live album by John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat that’s pretty amazing.</p>
<p>Not exactly Rock 'n Roll but still outstanding
Simon and Garfunkel Live in Central Park</p>
<p>Whoa, I’m loading up my Xmas gift Ipod, and I just put “One for the Road” - Alabama girls gotta have Lynyrd - on it last night.</p>
<p>A slightly different twist on album questions -does anyone have preferences on “Best of” collections, or remastered old albums. I’ve found the Greatest hits type collections are more efficient for updating the Ipod (I’m going to use it at work and in the car), but of course the quality varies tremendously. We had a James Taylor one that was super quality, but another, I think it was Kansas was awful. I’m using CDs of the original albums as much as possible, but for the ones that I only want to transfer one or 2 songs, its kind of slow.</p>
<p>FS’s Bill Evans selections (both essential since everybody digs Bill Evans ;)), made me remember another old favorite of mine: Keith Jarrett: The Koln Concert.</p>
<p>Everyone’s suggestions have been wonderful. However, I have to disagree with ID’s assessment of the Royal Albert Hall concert. The fury that is unleashed by Dylan and the Band on the electric side reduces the acoustic first half to merely a warm up!</p>
<p>cangel,</p>
<p>I can go into a huge diatribe about this, but most “remastered” CDs are actually inferior in sound to the original issue. Current mastering techniques emphasize loudness and compression, stifling the life out of the music. There are exceptions to this, but a good general rule is to stick with the unremastered CD.</p>
<p>Audiophile,</p>
<p>The only problem I have with Keith Jarrett live is all the harrumphing, mumbling and grumbling he does while he plays…beautifully. </p>
<p>I love “Live at the Deer Head” and “At the Blue Note”; in particular his recording of “The Days of Wine and Roses” with one of the most beautiful lead-ins I can think of. I like to start and restart the peice without playing it throughout as it always leads into that obnoxious groan-n-mumble.
Oy.</p>
<p>FS,</p>
<p>How do you feel about Glenn Gould, then? 
I wouldn’t miss the vocalizations, but they don’t bother me. I find the tinkling glasses and audience chatter on the Bill Evans dates more annoying.</p>
<p>AP:</p>
<p>It would not surprise me in the least to learn that Glen Gould was Jarrett’s performance role model–Jarrett certainly has classical, and more to the point, idiosyncratic-classical pretensions. I’m sure he’s worn out his own copies of Gould’s Brandenburg. </p>
<p>As for the tinkling glasses with Evans: on the surface at least, there seems to be less artifice involved than there is in Jarrett’s off-key groaning; glasses tinkle and echo in the little space of the Village Vanguard, as I have recently discovered–Evan’s comes by it honestly. </p>
<p>What’s more, such live albums as this have the effect of naturally achieving what the old Marvin Gaye albums did artificially, wherein Gaye would artificially pipe in party/club sounds to give the recording a live/visceral party/club feel: YOU ARE THERE…you can smell the smoke.</p>
<p>In any case, I still listen to Jarrett (and Gould) on occasion, but I always listen to Evans (also great studying music). I even raise my glass to the maestro in silent salutation</p>
<p>Regarding post 28 (Greatest Hits)—</p>
<p>This is always a tough call. There are these frequent errors of ommision that leave you wanting more. Case in point — lately I’ve been looking into getting the best stuff from Nat King Cole, and don’t have the big bucks to get all the trio stuff, the Capitol Records pop hits, etc. What to do???</p>
<p>I also listen to Evans way more than Jarrett, to the point where I know exactly when those glasses are going to clink. I recently purchased the entire Riverside recordings box set and listened to it from start to finish. 12 CDs with not one bum note!</p>
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<p>Yes. It has all that and it’s interesting from an historical standpoint. Alas, the technology for live rock was still a few years away, which is what really forced the Beatles to stop touring. Sound reinforcement technology underwent a massive sea-change over the decade from roughly 1970 to 1980. So, as interesting as hearing Dylan’s first electric tour may be, it’s not very pleasant from a sound quality standpoint.</p>
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<p>I think that depends. Remember that mastering in the vinyl era required massive compression to deal the very restricted dynamic range of the playback system, made even worse by the fact that much of the pre-1970s catalog was mixed for AM radio.</p>
<p>I agree that the recording techniques used for much top-40 “music” today are appallingly bad, not to mention the performances themselves. However, the recording and mastering techniques for non-pop music is pretty darn good these days. I find that the remastered versions of some of the old classics are pretty impressive. A good example is the boxed set remastered versions of all the Simon and Garfunkel albums.</p>
<p>A good example for the progress of recording technology would be a side by side listening to Eric Clapton’s new “Road to Escondido” album and “Layla” from the early 1970s (appallingly bad sound quality).</p>
<p>I agree with you on the S&G set. It totally depends on the mastering engineers (I’ve learned who I like and who to avoid). You need to compare apples to apples: There are no good sounding recordings of Layla…, but the 20th anniversary remastered Layla set is far worse than its predecessors. It will make your ears bleed!</p>
<p>Check out this link for a great explanation of of the problems with many recordings today: <a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ</a></p>
<p>I was not a fan of Nirvana before I heard the Unplugged cd, now it is one of my favorites.</p>
<p>rofl, wharfrat2…“There’s also and old out-of-print live album by John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat that’s pretty amazing.” I have Canned Heat’s - Living the Blues on the turntable right now. Nothing like a little “Refried Boogie” live @ the Kaliedoscope for breakfast…nice pick!</p>
<p>mother of4pearls</p>
<p>My son claim the only criterion on which I judge music is how loud it is. Not quite true, but close.</p>